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A milestone….or hourstone?

Today’s sailing trip marked a significant milestone. I passed over 100 hours of sailing experience. A milestone marks distance, so maybe this should be an hourstone. 🙂

I called my dad on the way to the lake to wish him a Happy Father’s Day. It’s an hour drive, so we actually had a good long talk today. I had already planned to meet my sons later for dinner to celebrate the day.

As I arrived at the marina, it was about 0930. It’s been about six weeks since I’ve sailed my own boat. I’ve been out a couple times with friends at Joe Pool Lake in that time, so I know my boat has probably been feeling neglected. The wind was moving through the docks fairly well, but I knew it’s always less wind when I get out onto the lake. I rigged everything up and headed out.

Karma came with me today. It’s been several months since she’s been sailing, so I decided to treat her.

I exited the dock and pointed the bow toward the harbor exit. After a few minutes I turned the boat into the wind and set the tiller tamer to hold course. As I stood up, I noticed I was slightly off the wind, so I moved the tiller ever-so-slightly. I heard a small “pop” and watched as the line holding the tiller fell away into the cockpit. I had borrowed a length of line for this since the line that came with it was too short. I guess the line I had borrowed was rotted. Oh well, I’ve sailed without one up until now anyway.

The wind I mentioned earlier wasn’t really much of a wind; it seemed more like the kind of breeze you’d get if someone was waving a feather at you from the opposite side of the lake. After a few minutes of floundering around without any real movement [excepting the waves created by the multitude of power boats that kept speeding by me], I did get some real air and was moving along at a brisk 3 miles per hour! 🙂

About an hour into the voyage, I passed by a group of kids from the Fort Worth Boat Club racing their little lasers. While I was barely moving in the 3 mph gale force winds, the little lasers were doing very well.

Although it was a very relaxing outing, I grew weary of moving at a snail’s pace so I started the motor, dropped sails and headed back in.

I only logged 5.7 miles in 2.9 hours, with an average speed a blistering 2 mph! I did, however, reach an achievement of passing the 100 hour mark of sailing experience and over 300 nautical miles of sailing travel so far.